50 // Catering Cruise Catering reCovery
Cooking up a recovery There are challenges a plenty but leading catering companies are revving up for recovery reports Julie Baxter
L
eaders in the onboard catering sector report recovery is now underway with an acceleration towards smarter solutions and new ways of working. Speaking at the first online webinar run by the Airline Catering Association (ACA), the heads of gategroup, LSG Group and dnata Catering & Retail all championed recovery and shared the view that the sector is at a point of transformation. Robin Padgett, senior vp catering and chair ACA, said: “I don’t want to proclaim a false dawn but we feel we are on a strong and clear pathway out of the pandemic. Business is back to 50% of pre-Covid levels. The market is different in different regions but it feels like a recovery in every market – some from a very low base, others about half way back - but the trend is unambiguously up, so we are quietly confident we are going in the right direction.” Erdmann Rauer, CEO LSG Group, said: “The
pandemic showed us all how fragile our business was. As an industry we were all in the same boat, with a big responsibility for employees and stakeholders to find our way to the future. We had to stand together to learn from the crisis, within the ACA and within our own companies, and at LSG Group we saw it was fast decision-making and being flexible that was essential. The crisis was also an accelerator to smarter solutions. Technology has become key, transforming what we do and that will continue.” His team will partner with equipment specialists, Kaelis, at WTCE in Hamburg to showcase innovative tableware solutions with a sustainability focus, alongside a live cooking event on the Thursday with three-star Michelin chef Thomas Bühner from Germany, Fatmata Binta from Sierra Leone, and Monica Pope from the USA sharing their culinary visions for a sustainable, seasonable future. A wide range of tech innovation will also be demonstrated
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Catering Recovery v14.indd 50
5/26/22 09:05 PM
